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I didn't recognize that I was anxious or angry.

Jeff McDowell, US Army 1985 - 2007, talks about how he knew he had PTSD.

Transcript

The first thing for me, I didn't recognize that my sleep was bad.

I didn't recognize that I was hypervigilant.

I didn't recognize that I was anxious or angry.

My family recognized that.

My friends did.

The first thing that came apparent to me was my joy.

I called it my joy because I didn't know what else

to call it.

The things that I liked to do, that I had put a lot of effort

and time into before weren't as important anymore.

You come back and you find yourself being very

compartmentalized, very work-oriented,

very school-oriented, very task-oriented.

You bury yourself in the things that you tell yourself you have

to do and not the things that you do for yourself

and so there's a certain amount of not taking care of yourself.

Part of the whole piece is taking caring of yourself too

and realizing that the things that you used to do,

they brought you joy and you used them for anxiety relief

and kind rezeroing yourself.

And if you don't do something then you just get so tight,

so anxious, so stressed out that it really lapses

over into those around you.

Your family, for instance, are the first ones

to take the hit for that.

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